Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Saturday that Japan will continue considering providing further aid to the Gaza Strip, which is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis amid the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
During a speech at an international conference held in the suburbs of Cairo and shown online to discuss the conflict, Kamikawa also pledged to make diplomatic efforts "to prevent the instability from spilling over" into the Middle Eastern region.
Tokyo's $10 million humanitarian relief to the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave, announced Tuesday, is "the first shot of assistance Japan is planning, and we will keep on considering assistance based on the needs on the ground in a timely manner," Kamikawa said in the conference.
She welcomed the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza earlier on Saturday, which enabled trucks carrying relief supplies to enter the Palestinian side of the border, as a step toward improving the humanitarian situation.
The Rafah crossing was opened for the first time since Israel imposed a complete blockade on Gaza on Oct. 9 in response to the Islamist group's surprise attack on the Jewish state two days before.
Kamikawa repeated Japan's condemnation against "the terror attacks committed by Hamas" while stressing that its position to support a "two-state solution" aimed at resolving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "unwavering."
Before visiting Egypt, Kamikawa said stability in the Middle East is crucial for Japan, which is highly dependent on crude oil imports from the region and has traditionally maintained friendly relations with them.
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